David Whitson, the host, introduced the themes of the night, which
were, “Colour Changes” and “Classics Tricks’.
It was a brilliant night.
John Ferguson demonstrated the use of the Svengali
Deck. A card was chosen by a spectator,
which was returned to the deck. The
chosen card then appeared inside a sand frame.
Both items are classic tricks.
The Svengali deck was invented by Burling Hull in the early part of the
last century. The sand frame allows a
chosen card to appear in a picture frame when a covering of sand drains away.
It was invented by Eugene Bosco.
John also showed the Magic Egg cup or Ball Vase. The cover of an egg cup is lifted to display
an egg. The cover is replaced. Waving his hand, and lifting the cover
again, he showed that the egg had vanished. This classic trick dates from at
least 1675, when it was first published (340 years ago!). Many of those present remembered using this classic from childhood.
A favourite trick of Al Hirschel is a brass key, made by
Viking Haenchen. Al was able to move
the tongue of the key up and down at will, but as soon as it left his hand, the
tongue was firmly locked in place. No-one else could move it. Neatly turned brass magic is really
wonderful.
Following the theme of the night, Michael Blakeman did a
card trick – a nice colour change from red to black in which he simply slapped
his hand on the red card on top of the deck and it changed instantly to a black
one.
Following the theme of “Colour”, Steve Irwin set up four
Jumbo cards of different colours, turned his back, and asked someone to touch
one of the cards. Steve not only knew
which one had been chosen (blue), but when he turned back to face us, he was wearing
a blue sponge ball on his nose !! Hilarious
!
Joel Howlett loves manipulation of objects, and this was the
theme of his presentation. He produced
one, then two fans of cards. He
produced a series of cards from thin air (like the Miser’s Dream). He asked a spectator to choose and sign one
of several spoons – a free choice – and then as he shook it, the spoon bent
slowly and finally broke in two. One member came up afterwards puzzled by what
had happened….
Using a brilliant script from Jim McKeague, Joel transformed
the fairly tame cups and balls. He
named all the balls – two ladies and a gent, then we found out what a Romeo the
gent was – and how jealous etc. etc – you get the picture, and it was
fascinating. Then taking the
Multiplying Billiard Balls (from Buatier de Kolta), he not only made them
multiply but also move through his fingers – like liquid – and then he started
juggling them. (No, he didn’t drop even
one!)
President David commenced with the Egg Bag, a trick that
complements the Ball Vase used by John (but who had forgotten to bring
it!). David’s clever manipulation of
the egg and bag would have really stirred up any children in the audience –
finishing with his showing a cloth chicken inside the bag – “this is Henrietta,
who helps me with this”. Another
classic item he showed us was the Chinese Sticks. He also had a lot of fun with the classic Die Box.
Yes, it was a brilliant night. If you missed it, you missed something special.
